"X-MEN FIRST CLASS:"
Josh Schwartz, who created the teen-friendly TV shows "Gossip Girl" and "The O.C.," is penning a script, based around the conceit of the 2006 comic of the same name, that focuses on the young mutants enrolled at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Books revolved around the Cyclops, Jean Grey, Angel Iceman and Beast characters, which already have been featured in the three previous "X-Men" films.

"MAGNETO":
"Batman Begins" co-scribe David S. Goyer is attached to direct the origins story of the "X-Men" arch-villain (played by Ian McKellen in the previous pics) and his relationship with Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). Both characters would be played by younger actors, given the earlier timeline in which the plot takes place.

And "Deadpool," which would revolve around the sarcastic mercenary played by Ryan Reynolds in "Wolverine," should the character in that pic prove popular with auds.

Rights to "X-Men" revert back to Marvel in 2012 if pics aren't in active development.

The future of the franchise essentially has been put into the hands of producer Lauren Shuler Donner, who has overseen all three "X-Men" pics to date and is shepherding "Wolverine,""First Class," (together with "Mr. and Mrs. Smith"-scribe Simon Kinberg), and "Magneto."

She's been influential in hiring indie directors not used to helming action or dealing with extensive special effects sequences. "I like taking someone out of the indie world and bringing someone into the action world because it grounds the movie," she says. "It gives it a reality. It gives it an emotional core, and then you can have as much fun and action in it as you want."

I wonder how Marvel would go with getting individual character contracts back. Like maybe if Fox isn't willing to give 'X-men' back they could get Wanda Maximoff. Or maybe Marvel could well and truly buy the Silver Surfer franchise as long as it doesn't mention the FF.

I wonder how Marvel would go with getting individual character contracts back. Like maybe if Fox isn't willing to give 'X-men' back they could get Wanda Maximoff. Or maybe Marvel could well and truly buy the Silver Surfer franchise as long as it doesn't mention the FF.

we currently know nothing about the status of the Maximoff twins... Which i also guarantee you is why they've yet to be in a film.

The Marvel Movie-verse is crowded enough without bringing the X-Men into it, and vise-a-verse. Besides, I love the X-Men movies (well, except for Wolverine, but that's effectively getting retconned out anyway) and I think they work well being in their own universe. Yeah, they're not 100% accurate to the source material, but then again the comics aren't either so it doesn't really bug me.

It's a shame about Spider-Man, though. I thought Raimi's Spider-Man could have fit easily in the same universe as Iron Man (and they originally planned on alluding to this in a dropped scene in IM, but they had to drop it due to rights issues), and I don't really like how the reboot is shaping up. I don't really care what happens to Spider-man right now since the version I liked is over and done with.

Maybe Marvel will get the rights to F4 and Daredevil back. I think that could work out well, because I want Marvel to be able to use Dr. Doom, Galactus, and Kingpin in the MMU. Marvel could do awesome stuff with them, but not if Fox still holds onto them.

Some have questioned whether Disney overpaid when it bought Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. After all, its best known Marvel Comics superhero franchises are parked at other studios, and Universal's Islands of Adventure is as dominated by Marvel attractions as it is Dr. Seuss.

But one thing to remember about Marvel assets is, they don't seem to wear out. We're about to see the second example where successful Marvel movie franchises are going to be reinvented.

20th Century Fox is the latest studio to start the process of overhauling one of its big Marvel Entertainment franchises, “Fantastic Four,” which has already hatched two films. The studio has hired Akiva Goldsman to oversee the re-boot as producer.

New script will be written by Michael Green, the “Heroes” co-executive producer who co-wrote “Green Lantern,” the Martin Campbell-directed Warner Bros. film that will star Ryan Reynolds.

Fox would not comment on its plans, and neither would Columbia Pictures when BFD revealed a couple weeks its plan to potentially re-boot the studio's most valuable franchise, "Spider-Man."

With “Spider-Man 4” moving toward an early 2010 production start, the studio recently hired James Vanderbilt to write a fifth and sixth installment of the web-slinger franchise, with the understanding that one or both could give that franchise a makeover with a new director and cast (Daily Variety, Aug. 16, 2009). Whether director Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire return or not, Sony smartly has given itself the chance to shorten the gap between its superhero installments.

And with state-of-the-art visual effects on superhero franchises pushing these pictures toward the $250 million-$300 million range, reshuffling the creative cast gives the studio a chance to save money, since actors and directors usually have a pre-negotiated option or two before the studio is held over a barrell by talent and their reps.

Marvel Studios has eliminated that problem by making talent sign as many as nine options, which was the case with the supporting cast of "Iron Man 2."

The 2005 “Fantastic Four” and 2007 sequel “Rise of the Silver Surfer” were directed by Tim Story, and starred Ioan Gruffud, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis. Since the deals are just getting made, it is unclear at present if any of them will return.

Though Marvel Entertainment owns and finances properties like “Iron Man” and “Thor,” Fox controls “Fantastic Four” in perpetuity—as long as it continues making the films. Fox has the same arrangement on Marvel Comics properties “X-Men,” “Daredevil,” and “Silver Surfer” --which, despite an appearance in the "Fantastic Four" sequel, is still a Fox priority for a solo film.

Marvel is a producer and financial participant through a licensing agreement signed before Marvel franchises had the drawing power they have now. In fact, the original deal was made back when Marvel was struggling to pull itself out of bankruptcy in 1997.

Fox has been extraordarily effective in mining its Marvel franchises. The studio made three “X-Men” films, and then a hit summer spinoff in “Wolverine.” Fox is working on a sequel to that film, and has scripts for “X-Men Origins: Magneto," and “X-Men Origins: First Class," the latter of which could bring original "X-Men" helmer Bryan Singer back to the fold. Potential spinoffs for the Gambit and Deadpool characters seen in "Wolverine" have also been discussed.

As producer, Goldsman is involved with several DC Comics transfers, including “Jonah Hex,” “The Losers” and “Teen Titans.” He was also producer on the Will Smith-Charlize Theron-superhero film “Hancock,” a film that has a sequel in development.

I think Marvel will get Daredevil and Ghost Rider back fairly soon. Possibly FF as well, though a new one is being looked at.

X-Men, Spiderman are NEVER leaving their respective companies unless they go bankrupt or Disney were to offer a ridiculous amount of money.

Sony will probably hold on to Ghost Rider for a while since they are currently filming GR2. If it flops Marvel might get GR back sooner, but if it makes money similar to the first then Sony will definitely make a third one, which would push back Sony's re-acquisition of the rights even further. Not that it disappoints me that Marvel can't use Mephisto in the movies-- he's essentially Marvel's Superboy Punch.

Sony will probably hold on to Ghost Rider for a while since they are currently filming GR2. If it flops Marvel might get GR back sooner, but if it makes money similar to the first then Sony will definitely make a third one, which would push back Sony's re-acquisition of the rights even further. Not that it disappoints me that Marvel can't use Mephisto in the movies-- he's essentially Marvel's Superboy Punch.

Yeah, if Ghost Rider flops there might be a Punisher: War Zone situation where Marvel may get the rights back within a year.

Marvel might already be re-acquiring F4 and Daredevil for all we know. No progress has been made on the alleged reboots of them, which makes me suspect that Fox doens't have the time or funds handy to make them.

I don't know what to expect from the Ghost Rider sequel. I only saw the first one once, and for what it was it was an enjoyable, albiet not particularly intelligent action movie. The sequel might flop, and it might not. It's had to guess when it comes to movies like this, where they're entertaining but not particularly memorable. Similar to X-men, though, I actually feel like of like we're better off if the Ghost Rider universe is kept separate from the Marvel Movie-verse. I really don't want them to get into the whole making deals with the devil junk in other Marvel films, and if Sony owning the rights to Mephisto and the rest is the only thing stopping it, I'm not in a rush to see those rights go back to Marvel.

you're not thinking this through. if a movie bombs, the GA doesn't care which studio produced it and which studio produces the sequel/reboot. it's the same franchise for them.
the last thing I want is a reaction à la: "Not ANOTHER Spider-Man/FF/DD/GR/X-Men movie!"

__________________

It wasn't Marvel Studios that made me a Marvel Zombie, it was every other movie studio failing at making superhero movies as good as them! ------------------------------

Today, Marvel confirmed what IESB reported back in February of this year, it was here on IESB the news first broke that Disney had plans to completely re-negotiate the standing deal between Marvel and Paramount. At the time, it was denied, but as the news today confirms, we were right. Now the IESB can break the news on what Disney is hoping to do next to continue building upon their Marvel Empire.

There are four Marvel franchises that Disney does not control and word is they want them back. Three are controlled by 20th Century Fox and one by Sony.

Let's start with the Fox controlled Marvel properties.

DAREDEVIL - The movie wasn't received well by critics or fans for that matter, but, it did make its money back in box office receipts, DVD sales and TV broadcasting rights - it made close to $180 million at the worldwide box office alone with a budget of approx $78 million. And while Daredevil isn't considered a first tier character, the Mouse House wants Matt Murdoch and his alter ego Daredevil back under the control of Marvel Entertainment.

Of course it's not just Daredevil under Fox's thumb, Elektra, Bullseye and Kingpin were also part of the deal. And it's entirely possible that under said rights deal, Fox may have a handful of other characters that haven't appeared yet that could possibly be brought to the big screen as well.

As it was reported here first on IESB and regurgitated on several other outlets, 20th Century Fox is currently in development on a reboot of Daredevil.

FANTASTIC FOUR - It's by far one of the most beloved comic book series of all time. Fox has released two Fantastic Four films, both have done extremely well at the box office ($620 million) plus DVD sales and TV broadcast rights. Perhaps not so well with critics and fans.

The budget for both films were around $230 million combined, $100 million for the first and $130 for the second.

Insiders are telling IESB Disney would love to get Fantastic Four back under their control and that this series, above all, fits the Disney mold the best being the first superhero family.

Fox is currently moving forward with its Fan Four/Silver Surfer reboot as its was first reported here on the IESB.

X-MEN - This one, by far, is the biggie, the X-Men franchise and the entire X-Men Universe. The four X-Men films have brought in a staggering $1.54 billion dollars plus what is believed to be close to another $500 million in DVD sales and TV broadcast rights. That's approximately 2 billion dollars...a lot of money to say the least. All four films had a combined budget cost of approx $500 million dollars.

The X-Men franchise is huge, there are 100's of characters in this universe and 20th Century Fox has a solid lock on this property. Besides the known characters of the films i.e. Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Rogue, Professor Xavier, Magneto, Sabretooth, Mystique plus the countless other heroes and villains that have appeared in the Fox feature films, besides those, there are so many other characters in the X-Men universe that they haven't used prominently...yet.

These include, just to name a few, fan favorites Bishop, Cable, Banshee, Blink, Havok, Quicksilver, Psylocke and Deadpool (whose spinoff is hopefully coming soon with Ryan Reynolds reprising the role). The X-Men universe is probably one of the largest hero/villain heavy universes out there, it's literally immense when you start to think about all of the inhabitants. Any of these names can easily be the core of a new X-Men team or spinoff.

20th Century Fox is moving full steam ahead with X-Men: First Class, X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2, Deadpool and other spinoffs currently in the works.

Disney will never and I mean never, ever, not in a 100 years, get this property back under the control of Marvel Entertainment, just not going to happen. Fox owns all of these properties for perpetuity, in other words, for-ev-ver....for-ev-ver...

Moving on to TV. If the feature films angle doesn't work, can Disney/Marvel possibly move forward with live action TV series based on the Daredevil, X-Men or Fantastic Four characters? Simply put "NO."

Fox has sued Marvel once before regarding the "Mutant X" fiasco. In those court documents a few interesting tidbits of the original rights deal are revealed.

They mean business -

In October 1993, Marvel and Fox signed an agreement (the "1993 Agreement") pursuant to which Marvel licensed to Fox all the rights that Fox may require in order to produce, distribute, exploit, advertise, promote, and publicize theatrical motion pictures based on the "X-Men" comic book series. The "X-Men" comic book series, referred to in the Agreement as the "Property," includes the X-Men Characters, specifically the "core" Characters and the Characters of the "X-Universe"; their origin stories; storylines from individual comic books; and "all other elements relating to the Property and the Characters." The rights granted to Fox included "the right to use the title (or subtitle or portion of the title) of the Property or any component of the Property as the title of any Picture or related exploitation." The Agreement reserved all television rights to Marvel, subject to a proviso, critical to Fox's pending contract claim, that Marvel would not "produce, distribute or exploit or authorize the production, distribution or exploitation of any live-action motion picture" without Fox's consent (the "Freeze").

From what we've been told, the lawyers at Disney have poured over the "Mutant X" case to find some wiggle room, but, due to the settlement between Fox and Marvel, it looks like Disney is **** out of luck. Their only hope is if Fox is willing to hand over rights to characters Disney would like to use. But, word on the street is Fox has made it very clear that they will not let go of any of the properties under their control for any live action medium.

Unlike Sony, we've been told by Fox Co-Chairman Tom Rothman and other Fox execs in the past, that they own the rights to their Marvel properties for perpetuity. But, we've also been told that if it ever came to the point where they were going to lose any property they own because of failing to have a movie in production, they would simply produce a low budget, straight-to-DVD feature and "four wall it," which basically means, stick it in any theater to fulfill their theatrical release clause.

So even though those Mickey Mouse lawyers have spent plenty of hours going over those Fox contracts it appears that they are rock solid.

So what about Sony's Spider-Man franchise? Same thing as the Fox deal, the contracts protect the studio 100% but they do have to continue to make movies with the Marvel characters on a regular basis. Spider-Man is not going anywhere, that also includes Venom.

Bottom line, the Sony and Fox contracts are rock solid. They will both keep their respective properties under their control. But you can be sure because they have plenty of money to spend, Disney will still have those Mickey Mouse lawyers looking for a loop hole....and to that I say, good luck!

The characters I want to go back to Marvel are primarily the villains between Daredevil and Fantastic 4. Dr. Doom, Kingpin, and Galactus would all be much better off in the Marvel Movie-verse than where they're at now, but I guess there's not much that can be done about that. I am not happy with the direction the Spider-Man franchise is currently going in, but I'm not sure how much better of we'd be if Marvel got their hands on it again. Chances are we'd get yet ANOTHER reboot, and the fact that Sony is rebooting is precisely the reason I'm unhappy with its current home in the first place. I've pretty much accepted that no-one is going to do what I want them to do with Spider-Man, and enjoy the complete series that I already have. It may sound harsh, but for now the Spider-Man movie franchise is pretty much dead to me.

I'm fine with Fox keeping X-men, though. I think they've done a decent enough job so far (except for XMOW, which I hated), and I think there's great things in store for it at Fox. I'm actually glad that Marvel can't use any X-men characters in the Marvel Movie universe, because that place is going to get crowded enough as it is without bringing millions of superpowered mutants into the mix. The X-Men universe is too darned big to fit inside of the Marvel Movie universe without making a spectacular mess out of everything, not to mention that the "Reed Richards is Useless" trope will become pretty much impossible to avoid.

You can get away with stuff like that in the comics where the consistency and believability are pretty much accepted from the outset, but movie audiences are much less forgiving about these sorts of things. And like I said, the absence of any mutants or Mephisto forces Marvel to be more creative than they have been in the comics, because there's less room for narrative ass-pulls. Marvel not being able to show people making deals with the devil, or inventing mutants for the sole purpose of solving narrative issues means that Marvel will have to either make sound choices or live with their mistakes. I certainly would not be very eager to see the concept of "comic book universe continuity" introduced to movies if it means we also have to put up with all the BS retcons and handwaving that comic editors love to resort to when they need to undo their own terrible ideas.

I could have seen Spider-Man being in the Avengers-verse comfortably, but whatever. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and Hulk have pretty much always been the cornerstones of The Avengers, and there's plenty of starpower there even without Spider-Man (who is only sometimes with the Avengers in the comics, anyway)

How many years does Fox have to reboot Fantastic Four before the rights go back to Marvel?

X-Men and Spider-Man belong in their own universes, cinematically. But Fantastic Four belong in the same 'verse as the avengers.

How do you figure? Just because we're used to them being in their own stand-alone film franchises?

Spider-Man and the X-Men have always crossed over into other books and vice-versa. In fact, it's been beyond "cross-overs" really. Every single Marvel book is like a window into a particular character or group's story within the larger Marvel Universe.

It's not like the X-men being in the marvel mainstream continuity hasn't caused it's fair share of problems regarding continuity and writing consistency, and it's something Marvel has struggled with for years. Joe Quesada decided that the easiest way to deal with it was to reduce the mutant population to only a few hundred. As much as I hate Quesada, and as much as I recognize that that was probably overkill, it was pretty obvious that the X-men universe was getting too big to exist inside of the mainstream Marvel universe.

Eventually you get to the point where it's like "Enough is enough, I can't write a good Iron Man story with all these mutant characters around because they cause too many plot holes." I very much like the X-Men movies being in their own continuity, because it leaves them free to explore the X-men mythology without tripping over the other superheroes' toes, and vise-a-verse.

Part of the problem is that the story path in X-Men isn't necessarily going to be compatible with what is happening with the other characters. X-men is about human evolution, and how as more and more mutants appear eventually there will not be any "normal" people left. That is a very big concept, and I think it's one that is best explored in its own series. The superheroes in the MMU are "super" because they are limited in number. If you suddenly drop a population of millions of mutants in there, then you're going to end up with the same dilemma that ultimately caused Quesada to decide to drop a nuke on the X-men 616 continuity.

At least with the movies, the X-men already have their own world to explore and grow into, and the Marvel Superheros are free to roam the MMU without getting wrapped up in the X-men storyline. I know that the comic fans want to see the X-men in the same world as the rest of Marvel's heroes, but the fact of the matter is that this concept barely even worked in the comic books, and if they tried to pull it off in the movies it could be a potential disaster for the MMU.

With where things currently stand, I think Fox would be fools to say: "We're not really interested in making any more of these films." and Marvel would be fools to say: "We really, really really want to get them back."

It's just like someone walking into a car dealership. You're not going to tell the Salesman how long you've been dreaming of that shiny new Audi and the salesman isn't going to tell you that A4's been sitting around for forever.

As for Fox making a crap film just to retain the rights, I think that's where we'll see the Disney lawyers jump into action. And while Fox may claim they'd do something like that, they'd have to think twice about actually following through - with or without the Disney lawyers breathing down their necks.

If they produce a crap film and release it to theaters, they'd be greatly devaluing the property and what's the point of hanging onto a property like grim death when your own idiotic actions have made that property worthless?

The thing is, it's been 8 years since Daredevil. It's been six years for Elektra. Fox obviously has no legitimate or immediate plans in making new movies for these characters. So now its just all about saving face. They don't want someone else to make money on a property they used to or in this case currently had. Look what happened with the Watchmen fiasco.